Letter: Voting a duty of citizenship

At age 86 I know that Nov. 8 will probably be my final chance to vote for the U.S. presidency. My first such vote was an absentee ballot cast while I was a soldier during the Korean War. I have voted in every election for which I was eligible since that time. There was one occasion, the Johnson-Goldwater election, when I had moved too recently to be registered. I see informed and thoughtful voting as not only the right, but also the duty of every person blessed with American citizenship. Failure to vote is to cede control of our public affairs to the ignorant, the thoughtless and the frauds who take advantage of such fools for their own selfish ends.

I would have liked to cast my final vote for my choice of two (or more) decent, honorable, competent candidates who proposed open, honest, well reasoned and well argued programs for the benefit not only of the American people but of humanity as a whole. Instead, I find myself compelled by all that I know as holy to vote against Donald Trump, who is — to quote the editors of The Atlantic magazine, "the most ostentatiously unqualified major-party candidate in the 227-year history of the American presidency." (p. 13, The Atlantic, November, 2016)

My entire adult career, as a soldier, as a teacher, and as a volunteer in the "war against poverty" since my retirement from Ball State University 20 years ago, has been spent in service to my country and my community. I regard my vote in this election as one of the most important acts of service I have ever been called to perform.

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